St. Saviour's Pairs

St. Saviours will be running their annual pairs tournament starting in the
last week of March. Section nights will be from Monday 28 March to Friday
1 April with the Finals on Saturaday 2 April. To enter contact Andrew
Hughes on 02838339391 or 07800573352.

Local winners of St. Anthony's

St. Anthony's Singles and Pairs finals were held on Friday 25 February and
it was 3 locals that emerged victorious. Mr and Mrs Aidan Corrigan from
Drumgor won the pairs with Paul Moffett from St. Saviour's winning the
singles.

St. Anthony's Under 25 Singles / St. John's Moira Singles

Hot on the heels of their Open Singles and Pairs tournaments, St. Anthony's are running an Under 25 Singles tournament. This is a great initiative and hopefully will be well supported. It is open to anyone born on or after 9 April 1986 and play will take place on Thur 7 and Fri 8 April evenings and Sat 9 April afternoon. Finals will take place on Sat 9 April evening. The Saturday afternoon session will hopefully encourage those from farther afield to enter. Click here for the entry form or contact Sean Trainor on 07754925683 for more details.

For those of us who no longer fall into the Under 25 category St John's Moira are also running their annual singles tournament. Nights of play are Sat 2 April, Wed 6 April, Sat 9 April, Tue 12 April and Wed 13 April with the finals on Sat 16 April. To enter contact Sadie White on 02892612231.

St. Anthony's Finals

The Finals of St. Anthony's Pairs and Singles takes place on Friday 25 February and promises to be a great night's bowling. The following are through to the Finals Night:

Pairs:
Sean Conroy, St Anthonys
Aidan Corrigan, Drumgor
Andrew Hughes, St Saviours
Paddy Hanlon, Cooley
Paul Hagan, Donaghmore
Ciáran McIntyre, Redeemer
Laurence McCarten, Armagh GC

 

Singles:

Stephen McMahon, Carrickmacross

Sean Trainor, St Anthony's

Nick Haire, Hillsbrough

Alan Johnston, Donacloney

Darren McCullough, Antrim Lawn

Seamus Murphy, Poyntspass

Seamus McMath, Towers

Paul Moore, St Anthony's

Damien McAllister, Cookstown Par

Billy Martin, St Johns Moria

Andrew Hughes, St Saviours

Paul Moffett, St Saviours

 

Top ladies prize to be be contested between

Eileen Trainor, St Anthony's

Margaret McGrath, Washing Bay

Bernie Jones, Tullysaran. 

1st Magherafelt Invitational Singles

3 Armagh players (Pauline Beattie, Martin Trainor and Andrew Leckey) are
involved in a new singles tournament run by 1st Magherafelt Presbyterian
Bowling club in aid of Tearfund. Many of the top short mat bowlers in the
country have been invited, almost all will have been involved in a major
final at the National Championships or Champion of Champions competition.

Play will take place over 2 nights (22 and 24 Feb) with 16 singles each
night in 4 groups of 4. Each group will be played on a round robin basis
with the top 2 from each group going throught to the knockout finals on
Friday 25 Feb. Groups are as follows:

Tuesday 22nd February
Rodney Kane, Keith McCullagh, Ryan O'Neill, Colum McHugh
U McKeeman, Eddie Curran, Johnny Wilson, Liam McHugh
Andy Leckey, Marty Trainor, DJ Wilson, Clark Hill
John Quinn, Gerry McCabe, Dessie Hamilton, Edwin Irwin

Thursday 24th February
Mark O'Looney, Pauline Beattie, Leigh Harrison, Stephen McKinley
Andy Steele, Derek Spratt, Trevor Turkington, Kevin Conroy
Gerard Conroy, Tommy Johnston, Alan Johnston, Damien McElroy
Paddy Hanlon, Bridgett Davidson, Noel Graham, Alan Paul

Play starts 7pm each evening
10 ends
No tied games, 1 bowl shoot-out decides winner
top 2 go through to knock-out stages

Tournament Report - Omagh County PTA Pairs

The following report was received from Neville Hagan:

Report on the bowling tournament organised by Omagh County Primary School P.T.A. (Feb 7th - 15th)

Omagh County Primary School ran a very successful second bowling
tournament in the Campsie Road school from 7th -15th February. After
qualifying, ten pairs returned for the finals night, which produced a very
high standard of bowling. The final was contested between Connie Campbell
/ Phelim McKiver (St. Bridgets, Brogagh) and Catherine McCrossan / P.J.
McCrossan (St. Pat's, Drumquin). A fantastic game saw neither pair taking
a strong hold on the game and after nine ends the score was all square at
7-7. A tie end was needed and it ultimately went down to the last two
bowls to decide who would lift the Herbst Machinery trophy. With his last
bowl McKiver drew round a short bowl to sit plumb on the jack - McCrossan
tried in vain with a swinging forehand to nudge the shot bowl off but he
just grazed past it and fell out leaving the Brogagh pair as winners of
this years event.

The results of finals night were:

1st Round

P.J.McCrossan (St. Pats, Drumquin) 12 H.Wilson (Ardstraw) 2

D.Spratt (Mayne) 7 A.Smith (Tullysaran) 6

Quarter Finals

P.J.McCrossan 9 D.Spratt 6

M.Kane (St. Joseph's, Kildress) 3 R.Kidd (Armagh G.C.) 8

P.McKiver (St. Bridgets, Brogagh) 12 J.Jacob (Ramelton) 2

C.Short (Clogherney) 7 M.Cunningham (Mayne) 8

Semi Finals

P.J.McCrossan 8 R.Kidd 3

P.McKiver 7 M.Cunningham 2

Final

P.McKiver 8 P.J.McCrossan 7 (after tie end)

At the conclusion of the tournament two cheque presentations were made:

Rodney Cunningham (P.T.A.) presented Ken Thompson (Principal) with a
cheque for £1900.00 as the proceeds raised from the running of the
competition.

James Anderson (P.T.A.) presented Victor Sawyers (Marie Curie Cancer Care)
with a cheque for £150.00 as the proceeds from the finals night raffle.

National Finals Draws

The draws have been made for this year's Stonebridge National Finals in Ballymoney on 5 and 12 March. Armagh's representatives have been drawn as follows:

5 March: RINKS
10.30: A. Roberts (St. Mark's) -v- J. Long (Cork)

5 March: SINGLES
11.30: A. Leckey (St. Mark's) -v- D. Campbell (South Tyrone)
11.30: G. Crothers (Armagh GC) -v- U. McKeeman (North Eastern)
11.30: P. Beattie (St. Mark's) -v- P. Rooney Jnr (Mid Down)

5 March: LADIES PAIRS
10.30: E. Smyth (Markethill) -v- S. McCullough (North Down)

5 March: OVER 55 PAIRS
13.30: R. Cassells (St. Mark's) -v- W. Nutt (East Antrim)

12 March: TRIPLES
11.30: S. Conroy (St. Anthony's) -v- C. McHugh (Mid Ulster)

12 March: PAIRS
11.30: T. Bell (St. Mark's) -v- E. O'Hare (South Down)
12.30: A. Leckey (St. Mark's) -v- G. Burke (Western)

12 March: LADIES TRIPLES
10.30: P. Beattie (St. Mark's) -v- J. Sharpe (North Eastern)

12 March: LADIES SINGLES
12.00: P.Beattie (St. Mark's) -v- E. Boal (S&E Belfast)

(No draws available for Junior Singles or Pairs)

The full draw can be found on the IIBA Website.

Local Tournaments Update

St. Anthony's Pairs

The following are through to the Finals Night on 25 February:

Sean Conroy, St Anthonys
Aidan Corrigan, Drumgor
Andrew Hughes, St Saviours
Paddy Hanlon, Cooley
Paul Hagan, Donaghmore
Ciáran McIntyre, Redeemer

2 more pairs from tonight's section will complete the high quality line-up.

The Singles will run on the following dates: 17th,18th,19th, 20th, 21st, 22nd Feb with Finals also on 25th Feb. To enter contact Christina Breen on 07799432426 or 38361397


St. Matthew's Pairs

St. Matthew's Pairs Finals were held on Sat 4 Feb with the Drumgor/St. Mark's pairing of Mark Sproule and Andrew Leckey emerging victorious. They beat Robert and Colin Deering from Armagh GC in the final. Beaten semi finalists were Sean Quinn (Cookstown Parochial) and Danny McStravick (Desertmartin). The other section winners were:

Aidan Corrigan (Drumgor)
John Martin (Magherally)
J. Mackey (Soldierstown)
Raymond Gourlay (Loughaghery)
Robert Kidd (Armagh GC)
David Irwin (Benburb)

Killyman Parish Open Pairs

Killyman Parish are running an open pairs tournament starting Mon 21 March -
Fri 25 March. Finals Sat 26 March.

Entries to:
I Eldon 028 87722713
V McIvor 028 87729291
G Cardwell 028 87726629

Ladies win 6th Interzone Title

Armagh Ladies won the Interzone for the 6th time by beating Donegal by 26 shots in  the final. The first half rinks laid the foundation for the win building up a 15 shot lead at the break. This proved too much of a hurdle for Donegal to overcome in the second half and with Armagh adding another 11 shots to the winning margin it was a comfortable victory in the end.

 

1st half scores

 

E Hunter, E Lavery, R Cassells, E Smyth 11 - 5 A Gilfillan

Anne Crozier, L Strain, H Agnew, D Marshall 13 - 3 V Patterson

M Wright, M Hobson, D Agnew, M Cassells  6 - 7 R Crawford

 

Half Time Armagh 30 - 15 Donegal

 

2nd half scores

 

M Livingstone, S Minish, S White, P Beattie 16 - 4  M Montgomery

S Corrigan, S Garvey, I Doone, C McMillen 9 - 6 E Doherty

A Crozier, G Garvey, S Whittle, F McNally 3 - 7 R McDonnell

 

Total score Armagh 58 - 32 Dongal

 

This win adds to the other wins in 1989/90, 1992/93, 2000/01, 2002/03, 2008/09

 

Congratulations to all concerned

St. Anthony's Tournament

St. Anthony's are holding their annual Pairs and Singles tournament. Dates of play are as follows:

 

Pairs: 10th,11th,13th,14th Feb
Singles: 17th,18th,19th, 20th, 21st, 22nd Feb
Finals night: Friday 25th Feb

To enter contact Christina Breen on 07799432426 or 38361397

Armagh men fall to Donegal

It may have been Armagh men's first home game for 3 years, but they came out second best against a determined Donegal side in the semi final of the Interzone.

 

The home side trailed by 2 shots at the break with Alan Roberts' 13-4 win cancelled out by 11-10 and 15-5 defeats to Aidan Corrigan and Joe Beattie respectively. Armagh came out of the blocks quickly in the second half and were soon in front, but Donegal pegged them back in what was turning out to be an excellent game. Marty Trainor drew his came 10-10 and with the 2 Andrews (Leckey and Hughes) playing their last ends Armagh were 6 down. In an exciting finale Hughes lay 5 and Leckey lay 1 which would have tied the game, but excellent last bowls by Andrew Steele and John Quinn secured 2nd shot against Hughes and shot against Leckey respectively to see Donegal through to their second final in 3 years. Northern will be their opposition but if they keep up their recent form they will be hard to beat.

 

Rink scores were as follows:

 

A Corrigan 10 v PJ Gallagher 11

A Roberts 13 v P McGee 4

J Beattie 5 v D McClintock 15

A Leckey 8 v J Quinn 13

M Trainor 10 v E Curran 10

A Hughes 6 v A Steele 6

 

Final score: Armagh 52 Donegal 59

 

It's now left up to the Ladies to carry the Armagh flag in their final, ironically against Donegal.